junior doctors

A local GP who referred Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant to a consultant proctologist has hit out at the Conservative government.
The Cloisters Medical Practice GP and chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Helen Stokes-Lampard told ITV’s ‘Peston on Sunday’ this morning that doctors felt ‘demoralised and shocked’ by what many see as them being scapegoated for the crisis in the NHS. She said:

‘The Conservative government’s plan to force surgeries to open seven days a week, 8am to 8pm or suffer funding cuts is clearly preposterous. The current NHS crisis is a reflection of a service that is already cut beyond the bone.’

Lichfield patients, who are already facing long delays in securing appointments with their GP and local A&E departments being swamped by non-emergency admissions, are also threatened by the closure of Samuel Johnson Community Hospital minor injuries unit and a reduction in beds.

Shortly after the broadcast Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant tweeted:
‘Great to see @HelenStokesLam of @rcgp on #Peston. She is my GP in #Lichfield!’

In the run up to the 2015 General Election, Conservative candidate Mr Fabricant ‘ticked the NHS box’ by spending some time with Dr. Stokes-Lampard in her Greenhill surgery. At the time he said:
‘The work of the GP and their staff is the front end of our NHS – without their expertise, the system would collapse. I am hugely impressed. I hope to make use of my experience as a valuable resource when considering NHS matters in the House of Commons.’
In response to Dr. Stoke-Lampards comments and recent criticism of his government’s handling of the NHS by junior doctors, the Red Cross and patients groups Mr Fabricant made use of his experience as a valuable resource when he appeared on BBC’s Daily Politics. He said:
‘It is an outrage, the treatment that these elderly confused folk received in Birmingham last weekend. Blacking-up by morris dancing buffoons is an ancient tradition that I will go out of my way to defend.’

Commenting on Mr Fabricant’s lack of engagement in local matters medical a spokesman for The Cloisters Medical Practice said:
‘Like all Conservatives from the PM down, Mr Fabricant is talking out of his arse. And we should know.’